


Mendacium

by AStrangeDaze (TerraRising)



Series: Anthologie: The Stories of Us [3]
Category: NU'EST, Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Romance, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 05:14:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11525274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerraRising/pseuds/AStrangeDaze
Summary: Jonghyun looks down at the three words wrapped around his hip bone and laughs until he cries.Or: the Soulmate AU where the first lie your soulmate tells you is inked into your skin.





	Mendacium

The mark appears on a Thursday night. At least, that’s when Jonghyun first noticed it was there.

 

Wiping down the condensation from the bathroom mirror after his shower, he had frowned at the discoloration he spotted on his reflection. When had he bruised his right hip? He didn’t remember banging it into anything at work, and public transport hadn’t been particularly jarring that day either.

 

Jonghyun looks down, twisting around a bit to stare at his hip, blinking away the water running into his eyes from his still damp hair. It wasn’t a bruise, no, it was too neat and deliberately formed to be a bruise.

 

Heart thudding so fast he could feel it in the base of his throat when he swallowed, Jonghyun pushed his towel down from where he had wrapped it around his waist to look at his words. It was a small unobtrusive thing, a thin script, characters slightly squished together, starting somewhere from his back and ending just at his hip.

 

Speaking truthfully, Jonghyun had never given the prospect of what his words might be too much thought. He’s had classmates and friends growing up who talk about it incessantly, daydreaming about something interesting, something dramatic.

 

He’s heard the stories of people who end up disappointed to have mundane things on their skin, like “I’m fine, don’t worry”, while others end up with long sentences that keep going until there’s a paragraph stamped on your thigh. He remembers how one of his classmates had stomped into room in a foul mood two weeks before their graduation and shoved her forearm at a friend, incensed that her words read, “You look great in that dress”, and the rest of their class had fairly howled with laughter while her friend tried to console her.

 

But now it’s his turn and he’s suddenly nervous without really knowing why, considering it hasn’t ever mattered to him all that much beforehand. There are only three characters, but the awkward angle means it takes him a moment to read what’s now effectively inked into his skin for life. His breath catches in his throat on the edges of his heart as it plummets towards the bathroom tiles. The humid air seems oppressive and Jonghyun wishes he’d bothered to turn on the ventilation system when he’d stepped inside, he feels like he’s choking on the vapour even though he knows it’s not the moisture in the air that’s suffocating him.

 

Jonghyun stares down at the three words wrapped around his hip bone, _I love you_ , and laughs until he cries.

 

Jonghyun doesn’t know how long he ends up sitting on the bathroom floor, fingers running obsessively over those three damning words as if he could rub them off, staring as if he willed it hard enough then they would change. But they don’t fade, they stay the same, and eventually he picks himself up off the ground, grimacing as his joints creak and protest the rough treatment after he had been curled up in that cramped position for so long.

 

He dresses and goes through the rest of his routine mechanically, heaving a slight sigh of relief when his clothes hide his words from sight.

 

For a second he finds himself hoping fervently that he’ll never meet them, will never have to lay eyes on the person who has turned something precious into something so hateful and bitter that Jonghyun is choking on the pain before it’s happened. But he knows that’s unavoidable, there’s no running from your other half, even if his apparently won’t treasure him, won’t care for him, and Jonghyun is biting back a sob again, tears running down his face.

 

He picks up his phone to call someone, anyone, he needs a steady hand to hold, a shoulder to cry on and then freezes, suddenly ashamed. How could he bear to show those ugly words to anyone, knowing their face will twist into horror and then sympathy, knowing that nothing they can do or say could change a single thing?

 

Jonghyun throws his phone back onto the bedside table and turns over to bury his face into his pillow. The fabric is soaked in minutes but he doesn’t move. One year. He’s got a year at most to prepare himself. _I won’t fall in love with them_ , he promises himself, _I won’t fall in love with anyone, not when I know it’s going to be a lie._

 

* * *

 

 

In the next few months, if any of his new friends he met in university find that he’s drawing away from them a bit and turning down offers to socialize, they don’t say anything. The only person that Jonghyun can feel comfortable around now his best friend, Minki, whom he knows won’t hurt him. They’ve known each other for years and lied to each other plenty of times before, little white lies to avoid getting in trouble or when planning suprises, that Jonghyun is certain Minki isn’t his intended or his words would probably read something like “I swear I didn’t eat your pudding.”

 

It had taken Minki all of three days to catch on to Jonghyun becoming more antisocial than usual and force the truth out of him. Every now and then, Minki will shoot him concerned looks from the corner of his eyes when he thinks Jonghyun doesn’t notice, but he’ll still come to Jonghyun’s rescue and ease him out of social situations when Jonghyun can’t escape even though Minki thinks his plan to basically shun social interaction until the year is up is ridiculous.

 

“It’s going to happen either way, Jonghyun-ah,” the other male had chided him, lips pursed and twisted in disapproval, “You shouldn't have to live your life any differently just because some asshole you haven’t even met is going to lie to you. Besides, the one-year guideline is only a rough estimate based on reported averages. What are you going to do if no one says those words to you by the end of this one year? Refuse to leave the house forever?”

 

Jonghyun had just ignored his friend’s logic, pretending to be intensely focused on his videogame until Minki had left with a huff, promising that he’d drag him out of the house some time so he doesn’t rot.

 

Which is exactly how Jonghyun ends up where he is now, wading through crowds with Minki’s arm looped through his to prevent him from running back to the safety of his room. They’re at Lotte World, a coworker of Minki’s had scored free tickets from some radio show but came down with a bad case of explosive diarrhea and given the tickets to Minki instead.

 

Minki had immediately pounced on Jonghyun, taking the opportunity to drag him out of his apartment, on just another of his many 'force Jonghyun to leave the apartment for things other than class so he doesn't actually become a hermit' missions.

 

“Come on, stop struggling, Jonghyunnie!” the now blonde male rebukes, clamping down on his arm even harder as he pulls Jonghyun along to the next attraction, “You’ve literally only got a week or so before that stupid cut-off date and I promise it’s only the two of us who are here. I didn't call anyone else up and hide them from you, promise. There’s no way that you’re going to form a magical emotional connection with a stranger here in the Lotte World crowds that will scar you for life. It’ll be fine!”

 

Jonghyun acquiesced with a sigh, it took too much energy to fight a determined Minki anyways, so he buys a bag of candy floss to shut Minki up with instead.

 

They’re walking off lunch and looking for the next ride that will satisfy Minki’s criteria of being exhilarating without being _too_ terrifying when the announcements come on to announce a special event to take place in ten minutes. Minki perks up immediately and pulls Jonghyun along to the spot near the theatres.

 

“Oh, they’re asking for participants! And they’ll be entered into a draw for a ₩50,000 gift certificate! Let’s enter!” Minki chirps, eyes darting over a sign quickly, too quickly for Jonghyun to read anything himself, pushing them both towards the makeshift stage.

 

“Minki! We don’t even know what this is for!” Jonghyun protests, but his friend will have none of it.

 

At least, he thinks to himself, fidgeting on stage in front of a gathered crowd while lined up with the other participants, it doesn’t seem to be anything embarrassing. It’s a recruiting pitch for an up and coming Film and Theatre program, the participants are asked to act out a scene with the existing students, or in contrast to existing students to wow prospective students. Or something like that, honestly, Jonghyun wasn’t really paying attention when the announcer explained everything, he was just counting down the time until he could get off the stage and return to the comfort of his own room.

 

If Minki wasn’t here with him, excitedly bouncing on his toes as the competitive part of him peeks through, hoping to show up the theatre students, Jonghyun would have snuck off stage ages ago. But as much as he didn’t want to stay, Jonghyun loved his best friend and couldn’t quite bring himself to ditch him in Lotte World, especially knowing the consequences that would come if he ran.

 

He nods along and claps politely as the impromptu performances go by, zoning out until it was Minki’s turn. Minki’s assigned ‘role’ is a boyfriend who just found out his girlfriend was cheating on him, and to the blonde’s pleasure, he had definitely out-performed his partner, turning to present her with such a heartbroken and betrayed look that she had stuttered and tripped over her lines. Of course, the girl had been more than a little dazzled by Minki’s striking features from the start, struggling to keep her face from flushing when Minki played the role of a doting boyfriend.

 

Two more participants, and then it’s his turn and Jonghyun walks over to pull out his ‘role’ from the box, reading over the scenario quickly. His partner is a tall, mild mannered boy with pleasing features and a sweetheart smile who introduces himself as Hwang Minhyun. 

 

They’re given five minutes to prepare while the announcer regales their audience with more details about the program, Jonghyun tunes him out and focuses on remembering enough of his lines to not embarrass himself. It’s a clichéd scenario, : their characters are childhood friends, the scene centers around the tension between them from a recent fight over Jonghyun’s character dating a girl the friend doesn’t like. The climax of the short skit is Minhyun’s character revealing that he’s actually been in love with his friend this whole time; if it wasn’t for the gender of their characters, Jonghyun would call this entire thing a bore.

 

“Ready?” his partner asks, laying a gentle hand on Jonghyun’s elbow to get his attention.

 

Jonghyun nods, scolding himself for letting his heart flutter with how close Minhyun’s face is to his when he leaned in to whisper his question, careful not to disrupt the announcer’s speech. The other man really was unfairly attractive, Jonghyun thinks, but it’ll definitely be an asset in his chosen field; Jonghyun can easily see him making it big on prime-time television and ranking high on surveys like “Top 5 Male Stars women want to spend Chuseok with”. Instead he nods, nose full of the scent of Minhyun’s shampoo, tucking the script away as they stepped forward on the stage at the announcer’s cue.

 

“Look,” Jonghyun starts, turning towards Minhyun with a frown on his face, “I don’t know what your problem is with me, but I’m not going to let you speak about Chaeyeon like that.”

 

Minhyun stares at him for a moment, expression hard before he lets out an explosive sigh, eyes downcast even as he runs an agitated hand through his hair, “It’s not-, I don’t have a problem with you.”

 

“Then what is it?” Jonghyun asks, raising his voice and taking a step forward, “You’ve been weird ever since I told you, Chaeyeon and I were dating. Do you have something against Chaeyeon then?”

 

Minhyun is carefully silent, eyes averted, dragging out the tension that builds slowly between them. “She’s not right for you,” the other man says in a low tone, still able to project his voice out to the crowd somehow and Jonghyun is impressed before he remembers he needs to say his next line.

 

“That’s it? That's all you have to say?”

 

Minhyun is silent still, eyes boring sorrowfully into Jonghyun’s, making it hard to him to remember what he has to do next. He scoffs and reminds himself to turn away from Minhyun, “Whatever. If you don’t want to talk to me, we’re done here. Come find me when you’re done being ridiculous.”

 

He makes it two steps before Minhyun is suddenly looming over him from behind, arms wrapped around Jonghyun’s arms and upper chest. “Don’t go,” the other boy pleads in his ear and Jonghyun’s breath stutters in his chest at the proximity; Minhyun was taking this a lot more seriously than he had expected.

 

He struggles against Minhyun’s grip half-heartedly, “Let go, you idiot.”

 

Minhyun doesn’t let go, only pulls him closer to his chest and leans his forehead against Jonghyun’s shoulder. “Don’t go,” he begs again, his breath tickling Jonghyun’s ear and making the shorter man shiver and gulp nervously.

 

Jonghyun lets himself slump backwards as if defeated, fight running out of him even though he’s still panicking inside at having his personal space invaded by a complete stranger. He’s cursing Minki in every language he knows inside his head (it’s not a lot, it’s a grand whopping total of two) for getting him into this situation, cursing whomever wrote this stupid script. There’s a line he should say but he can’t remember and the silence is deafening, Minhyun is pressing closer still and Jonghyun is starting to forget that this is just an act, that he can call it off anytime.

 

As if sensing Jonghyun’s dilemma and probably able to guess that he had forgotten his lines, Minhyun skips over them to his next part.

 

“I love you,” he confesses, voice thin and desperate.

 

And Jonghyun is frozen because there’s a blazing sensation in his right hip and he hisses in surprise. It doesn’t hurt but it takes his brain several seconds to compute what’s happened and he whips around to look straight into Minhyun’s surprised eyes.

 

This isn’t in the script, this isn’t how the scene is supposed to go but Jonghyun doesn’t care. He drinks in the sight of Minhyun’s wide eyes, a liquid brown warmer than sun-kissed earth, the delicate turn of his lips and the gentle slope of his nose, and reaches up to clasp that lovely face between his hands.

 

Jonghyun is laughing now, the sound bubbling out unbidden from his throat as he pulls the other man close to him, resting their foreheads together. “Thank god, oh thank god,” he repeats.

 

If it wasn’t for the fact that their audience thought this was part of the scene, Jonghyun is certain they’d think he was insane, but the relief sweeping through his limbs is so sweet he can’t help but embrace it even as his knees buckle underneath him. Minhyun is quick to wrap his arms around Jonghyun’s waist, pulling the other male against him to steady him and Jonghyun just keeps laughing , smothering his giggles into Minhyun’s shoulder as he slumps against him helplessly.

 

Minhyun nods towards their audience and then delicately maneuvers them to the back of the stage where Minki is waiting for Jonghyun anxiously. “What’s wrong, Jonghyun, are you feeling okay?” his friend fusses the moment he’s within arm’s reach.

 

Jonghyun just shakes his head, not lifting his face from Minhyun’s shoulder and the man looks at Minki helplessly even as Minki shrugs to show he’s just as lost as Minhyun is. Between the two of them, they get Jonghyun off the stage safely though he still refuses to let go of Minhyun when they settle down on a nearby bench. The poor man just sits stiffly with an arm wrapped around Jonghyun’s waist and lets the other cling to him, trying his best to be comforting.

 

When Jonghyun comes to his senses later, he’ll be mortified for clinging to a complete stranger even if they did just back hug in front of an audience not five minutes ago, but for now Minhyun’s shoulder is safety.

 

“Jonghyun-ah,” Minki coaxes again, stroking a hand along his back, “Can you tell me what happened?”

 

It takes him several minutes to get the words out, but he manages. “He said, he said ‘I love you’.”

 

Minki frowns for a moment before he freezes, eyes going wide and darting between Jonghyun’s hunched form and Minhyun’s perplexed face, “Oh, _oh!_ ”

 

Jonghyun just breaks down into hysterical laughter again, hands clutching at Minhyun’s shirt and probably stretching the material beyond repair.

 

Later when he calms down enough, he’ll manage to explain the situation to poor Minhyun who had resigned himself to being a madman’s perch for the last hour or so, too kind to push Jonghyun away. He’d push down the hem of his jeans just enough to show Minhyun his words, now a silvery script once they had come to pass. The taller man’s eyes would go wide as he reached out to trace the skin before snatching his hand back and apologizing for taking liberties, as if Jonghyun hadn’t just spent the last hour invading his personal space.

 

Later, Minhyun would apologize to Jonghyun repeatedly for making him carry such terrible words, and promise to make it up to him. Jonghyun would tell him it was okay, and Minhyun would gasp and then show Jonghyun his words, etched on the curve of his ankle and Jonghyun would laugh and laugh, except this time Minhyun laughs with him while Minki rolls his eyes in fond exasperation.

 

And even though the two of them grow closer and closer still, and even though they start officially dating two months later and Minhyun is unerringly sweet and loyal to him, Jonghyun would fight with his lingering doubt and carry it with him silently.

 

He harbours that ache deep in his chest until the first time they make love and Minhyun presses so many kisses into his skin the ache in his heart is overwhelmed. Minhyun whispers the truth in his ears as he holds him close and then goes on to worship the words on his hip with his lips until Jonghyun finally understands they aren’t a curse, but a promise.

 

_I love you._

 

It’s the promise of a lifetime and Jonghyun finally lets himself go, knowing that Minhyun will always be there to catch him when he falls.

**Author's Note:**

> Everyone was asking for 2hyun's story; I don't think this is what you guys meant but it's what happened, hope you guys still liked it.
> 
> Also apparently I'm not even going to try for titles anymore and just make it seem fancy by translating words into Latin :>


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